RIP: Sandra Faire

By FYI Staff

The pioneering Canadian television producer and philanthropist died Feb. 27 in Toronto. No cause of death or age has been made available.

"She was a trailblazer for women in film and television whose commitment to excellence helped set the standard for production in this country," Randy Lennox, president of Bell Media, whose CTV channel has a vault filled with Faire's variety series output, said Friday in a statement.

"A trailblazer for women, she was a driving force and had a special place in the industry. I had the pleasure of working with Sandra for many years, and she will be deeply missed,” Rogers Media president Rick Brace, a former CTV executive, said in his own statement.

Valerie Creighton, president and CEO of the Canada Media Fund, a major Canadian TV financier, said in a statement: “A role model for women in the industry, her work has inspired future generations of women producers."

In 1972, Faire began her television career as associate producer for Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour which was taped in Toronto. From the 1970s into the 1990s, Faire was a producer with CBC Television, where she created and produced variety entertainment programs such as The Joyce Davidson Show, Video Hits, and Comics!. In 1997, she founded and operated her own private production firm, Sandra Faire & Associates, which produced programming primarily for CTV and The Comedy Network.

The company's productions include Comedy Now!, Comedy Inc., The Holmes Show and So You Think You Can Dance Canada, as well as television specials for musicians such as k.d. lang, Rita MacNeil, Bryan Adams, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Corey Hart, The Rankin Family, Amanda Marshall and Anne Murray. The company also produced the feature film My Own Private Oshawa.

In 2008, she received an honorary doctor of laws from York University. In 2012, she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for culture and the arts.

Faire was married to Ivan Fecan, an executive with CTV. The couple were involved in philanthropy, acting as patrons or sponsors of institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Ballet of Canada, Soulpepper Theatre Company, the Hospital for Sick Children and York University, as well as creating the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Dance Fund, a scholarship fund for dance students which has also provided prize money to non-winning finalists on So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

– Sources: Wikipedia, CBC, Hollywood Reporter, CTV